Start from 22 curated places around Amana Colonies, IA, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Ox Yoke Inn
A German-American family-style dining room run by the same family for generations, with Wiener schnitzel, sauerbraten, Amana brats, and bottomless shared sides. Come hungry, since the refillable sides feed you twice over.
The Ronneburg Restaurant
A decades-old German family-style hall named for the fortress that sheltered the Inspirationists, known for Amana pancakes, kassler rippchen, and herbed cottage cheese. The pancakes come family-style, which most first-timers do not realize.
Trails & outdoors
Amana Kolonieweg Trail
A mostly-paved loop linking Amana and Middle Amana past Lily Lake, the old mill-race canal, pastures, and farmland, easy and flat and good for birding. Walk it counterclockwise so Lily Lake lands near the end for the evening light.
Amana Nature Trail
A set of connected wooded loops tracing a bluff above the Iowa River, with river overlooks, spring birding, and the site of an old Native American fish weir nearby. Take the bluff loop for the overlooks if you only have time for one.
Things to do
Millstream Brewing Co.
Iowa's oldest microbrewery, brewing German-style lagers and ales plus its own root beer in a long-standing building, with a taproom, biergarten, and summer Saturday live music. Order a flight that includes the root beer for the non-drinkers.
Ackerman Winery
Iowa's oldest operating winery, making fruit wines from dandelion and rhubarb to mango and raspberry, with free tastings on the main street. Come here for the fruit wines you cannot get elsewhere.
Landmarks & sights
Amana Heritage Museum
Three nineteenth-century buildings tracing the Community of True Inspiration from religious persecution in Germany to communal life in Iowa, with a short film that sets up the whole valley. Start your trip here so the quaint shops and kitchens in the other villages actually make sense.
Communal Kitchen and Cooper Shop Museum
The only intact communal kitchen left from the era when village kitchens fed dozens of people several times a day, preserved as it looked the last day it served. Cross the road to the cooper shop too, which most visitors miss.